Polyu/ustc atrium: a full-scale burning facility-preliminary experiments

The PolyU/USTC Atrium, a full-scale burning facility for atrium fire studies has been constructed at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). The atrium will be managed by USTC and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). The construction features of the facility are reported briefly, and further studies using this facility are outlined. Typical use of the facility is demonstrated by several smoke filling tests. The results on the smoke layer interface height were analyzed and compared with those predicted by zone models. It is observed that a zone model can give quite accurate prediction on smoke filling during most of the burning period. Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.